Education in Malaysia

Like all children, refugee children have the fundamental right to life, survival and development to the maximum extent possible. However, living in exile, refugee children are often denied normal childhoods.

Refugee children in Malaysia are denied access to the formal education system, and thus obtain education via an informal parallel system of 128 community-based learning centres.

UNHCR advocates for refugee children’s access to education, provides financial and material support to the learning centres, support capacity building of teachers through teacher training and compensation, and continued coordination of ad-hoc support towards enhancing access to, and quality of, education for refugees.

Highlights

14% (1,234)

Refugee children aged 3-5 years enrolled in pre-school education

44% (5,046)

Refugee children aged 6-13 years enrolled in primary education

16% (874)

Refugee children aged 14-17 enrolled in secondary education

Population of Concern:

There are a total of 150,379 people of concern. 25,499are under the age of 18, with 23, 823 of school-going ages.

Of the 23,823 that are of school-going ages, only 30% are enrolled in community learning centres.

Objective 3: Improve access to formal secondary education opportunities for refugee young people

Objective 4: Improve access to higher education opportunities for refugee young people

UNHCR has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, International University of Malaya-Wales (IUMW), Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, Brickfields Asia College, International Innovative College and HELP University to provide access to higher education courses for refugee young people.

Currently 48 refugees are pursuing their further studies.

Objective 5: Ensure opportunities for education are live long and available according to need

Early Childhood Development is further enhanced with the Toy Box programme which is implemented at 12 learning centres.

About 576 refugee youths have graduated from Project Self-HELP since its implementation in 2011. Project Self-HELP is a skills training programme by HELP College of Arts and Technology.

Challenges

Denial of access to Malaysian formal public education.

Lack of certification and access to public examinations.

High turnover of teachers and minimal compensation.

Security and safety issues faced by the students and teachers in and out of school.